Lightning @ Leafs - Mar. 19th, 7:00pm - TSN, TSN 1050
- Thread starter CarltonTheBear
- Start date
GhostofPotvin29
New member
CarltonTheBear said:
Yep - Montreal/Columbus play each other tonight.
bustaheims
Active member
Potvin29 said:
And Columbus plays the Rangers on Friday. And the Wings on Tuesday.
GhostofPotvin29
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bustaheims said:
I'll just save everyone the trouble - they're all going to OT/SO. Every. Single. One.
ZBBM
Active member
Potvin29 said:
I'm not worked up about where they finish. Their stay in the playoffs will be short.
The takeaway from this season is that the 2 top forward lines are in good shape (assuming Clarkson isn't on the 2nd) and with a less pigheaded coach the 3/4 lines could be made useful pretty easily. The defense needs a teardown and yes, sorry to insist on it but it's true, somebody like Gardiner who has real value is probably going to have to go in order to get a young d-first defenseman of similar caliber. It's too bad they stuck themselves with Phaneuf as the centerpiece when he just doesn't quite cut it for what he's expected to do.
Coco-puffs
New member
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
Really? You think both lines are in good shape? The first, is definitely in good shape although they could stand to improve puck possession wise (as could the entire team). The second?
Kadri will finish with 50+ points, but is a -7 despite being one of the better puck possession forwards on the team- if he brings it every night, yes were in decent shape at 2nd line center. The concern is, he doesn't bring it every night.
Lupul has been TERRIBLE defensively this season, without being more than a 2nd line player points wise. He's a team worst -11 among Leaf forwards. Only Jay McClement has worse possession stats among players with more than 400 mins at even strength.
Our other options for "2nd line forwards" are Kulemin, Clarkson, and Raymond. Raymond has been good this year, but is he on our 2nd line moving forward? Is he even on this team next season?
Kulemin has only slightly better possession stats than Lupul, but at least he's actually dependable defensively. He's not scoring like a 2nd line player should (and that probably has a lot to do with the fact he hasn't been on the 2nd line most of the season). Will he even be back next year? I hope so. In fact, I prefer a Lupul - Kadri - Kulemin 2nd line to anything else.
...and that brings us to Clarkson. He's having a terrible first year here in Toronto. However, I'm not completely up in arms over it like many other posters here. His possession numbers are slightly above average compared to the rest of the team. His point totals are abysmal- not helped by the fact that he's been snake bitten personally (4.76% Shooting Percentage. He's a career 9%) and so has everyone who's on the ice with him (5.8% on-ice shooting percentage, lowest on the team). These number can only improve. That doesn't mean he's worth his contract or ever will be, but we can at least expect more out of him moving forward.
Lastly, the Bolland injury has killed us this year. When Bozak and Kadri and #1 and #2 on your team, you better have a STRONG #3 center. McClement is no more than a 4th liner, but had been pressed into more duty because of the Bolland injury. Holland has his moments, but he's no Bolland and yes Carlyle probably should have still stuck with him as our 3rd line center ahead of McClement at times this season. Our 3rd line wingers are essentially 2 of the 3 I mentioned above (Raymond, Kulemin, Clarkson). Not sure how we could have gotten more out of that group, except to have played Holland more, McClement less, and kept Clarkson on the 3rd line and Kulemin on the 2nd line more.
I will 100% agree that we could have gotten more out of our 4th line had we been dressing a whole lot less of Orr/McClaren and more of D'amigo/Ashton/Bodie.
Anyways, I really hope we get Bolland back soon so we can have a real NHL checking line.
Highlander
Active member
agreed Red Leaf, they need to turn it around and fast but there are still many games to do so. Perhaps there is a hangover from the Olympics but Kessel, Bozie and JVR will figure it out.
Oh forgot it would help to have the big Bernier back as well as Reimer is starting to look like a geniune back up (and I never thought I would say that)
Oh forgot it would help to have the big Bernier back as well as Reimer is starting to look like a geniune back up (and I never thought I would say that)
Heroic Shrimp
New member
Heroic Shrimp said:
9 days ago this was the pessimistic worst case scenario in my mind. :'(